NEW USERS! INTRODUCE YOURSELVES!

My name is Jim Guyer. I have written a book named "Rabbit in a Bottle" This is my fourth book. I have never been published. the first three were straight Sci-fi, a fun romp but nothing to thought provoking.

Rabbit in a Bottle is a much more philosophical book than I have ever written before. A young man with amnesia is revived with an experimental genetic process. He struggles to find himself surrounded by strangers. He sees the good and bad of human nature from a fresh eye.

I have self-published the book on Createspace.com. Everyone who read it has loved it, but it is nearly impossible to get an agent to look at it.

You can read the first several pages suing the "click inside" on Amazon.

Any words or wisdom would be appreciated.

http://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Bottle-Jim ... n+a+bottle

Hi Jim,

My first word of advice would be not to advertise your general fiction book in the welcome thread of a forum specifically geared towards a speculative fiction short story contest.

Are you also planning to participate in the Writers of the Future contest? If so, glad to have you!

If you'd like more writing-specific advice for those hypothetical stories, check the "critique" section of the forum.

Hello All -

I'm a newbie around here. Not much to say except that I subscribe to the Rules of Writing as written down by Robert Heinlein. I write in different genres, and different lengths, and I love every minute of it.

Glad to be here.

Hi Jeff, welcome!

Wait, did you say Heinlein's Rules? SOMEBODY GET ME A PITCHFORK! THE HOLY WAR IS UPON US AGAIN!

(Nah, just joking. I don't agree with all of 'em, but if they work for you, that's great!)

Looking forward to getting to know you more.

austinDm,

Got the word a couple of days ago that I was not a finalist in WOTF Q4. Haven't heard about the Illustrators' contest results yet.
Thanks for the kind words regarding my artwork. I really just started doing 3D modeling in February of this year, although I've drawn since I could hold a pencil. Check the blog (carytowncomics.blogspot.com) again in a week or two. I should have some more stuff on there by then. I am determined that I will post something this month, especially since I skipped November. I'm thinking I'll also have something new on the Roadfrogs (roadfrogs.wordpress.com) site sometime in January.

And good luck to you, too.

Welcome, Robert!

Congrats on submitting your Q1 (still working on mine) and good luck with Q4. (The marshmallows should start flying any day now. I would invest in an umbrella.)

I really like the artwork on your site. You do sci fi cityscapes really well. I would absolutely love to live in one of those places!

Thanks, Jeanette, er "morshana",

I checked out your blog. I can appreciate your sentiments expressed there. And, in a way, I understand why you only have the one post. Personally, I don't see how some people have the time to write a blog practically every day, along with whatever else they're doing. That said, I look forward to reading more from you.

Good luck in the contest!

Welcome, Robert!

Well, until I manage to win or no longer qualify because I make enough sales to be considered a pro, I'll be here, plugging away. This is one of the few contests where I can afford the entry fee! 😉

Hi Robert, welcome aboard.
I'm always envious of you multitalented types... Look forward to seeing you take both contests some day!

Thanks, Tom.

I visited your blog. Interesting stuff. Knew I had seen the name before. Finally figured out where - on amazon, as I searched through their SF listings of Kindle books. I read your story "Sagan's Law". Good story. I look forward to reading more.

Welcome Robert!

Thanks, Jeanette, er "morshana",

I checked out your blog. I can appreciate your sentiments expressed there. And, in a way, I understand why you only have the one post. Personally, I don't see how some people have the time to write a blog practically every day, along with whatever else they're doing. That said, I look forward to reading more from you.

Good luck in the contest!

Welcome, Robert!

Thanks, Robert. I did the one post. Maybe I'll do another in another year.

Thanks for the welcome, Dantzel.

I checked out your website and read "Birthing Fire", which I greatly enjoyed. If you've looked at my blog (carytowncomics.blogspot.com), you've no doubt seen a dragon or two there.

Congrats on the semi-final finish in Q3.

I saw on your blog that you've made an impressive number of submissions this year. This year has been pretty exciting for me too. I'm about 150 pages into one of the five novels I'm writing, I've got a half-dozen completed short stories that I'm shopping around now (most of them began as WOTF submissions). So far, no bites, but it was nice being a semifinalist in Q2 of the IOTF contest. I'm also a musician. Juggling writing, drawing, 3D modeling, songwriting, writing and art submissions, recording, playing in a rock band, housework AND my part-time job as the praise team director at my church is quite a juggling act. And now that I've made that list, for some reason I feel very tired. 😉

Actually, a little over a year ago my wife and I agreed that I should leave my full-time job (managing a pawn shop) so that I could concentrate on all the other stuff on that list above. It's been tough financially, living mostly off of her paycheck, but it's not a whole lot tougher than it was when both of us were working full time. And the house is cleaner, there's usually someone at home (me) when our son comes home from school, and I'm finally pursuing these artistic endeavors that I've mostly put off for the last thirty-five years.

Anyhow, to read what you've accomplished this past year, notably during the past eight months that you've been pregnant, has been very heartening to me. And it reinforced my conviction that I just need to get myself a little more organized in order for all this to flow a little more smoothly.

Good luck with the contest. And with the baby!

Welcome Robert, Adeline, and Jeff!

Thanks, C.J.

Welcome Robert and Jeff!

 

Thanks, Robert!
Actually, I have trouble drawing straight lines too. Thank God for rulers and computer art programs.

welcome Robert, that's a good name you got there!
Clearly you are not me as I cannot draw a straight line...

Thanks for the welcome, Dantzel.

I saw on your blog that you've made an impressive number of submissions this year. This year has been pretty exciting for me too. I'm about 150 pages into one of the five novels I'm writing, I've got a half-dozen completed short stories that I'm shopping around now (most of them began as WOTF submissions). So far, no bites, but it was nice being a semifinalist in Q2 of the IOTF contest. I'm also a musician. Juggling writing, drawing, 3D modeling, songwriting, writing and art submissions, recording, playing in a rock band, housework AND my part-time job as the praise team director at my church is quite a juggling act. And now that I've made that list, for some reason I feel very tired. 😉

Thanks! I often see where I could have done more this year, but beating myself up over those missed opportunities doesn't help, so I just need to keep plugging away and hoping for the best next year.

Good luck with all of the awesome stuff you're involved with! Way to stay well-rounded!

Hi I'm Genivieve.
I am a stay at home mom with two kids and one on the way who loves to write and lives in North Dakota. Most of my stories are along the horror sci-fi genera and am working on my first full length novel. This is the first writing contest I've put into and first forum I've been a part of. I really don't know what else to put down so good luck to everyone who enters into the contest.

HM 4th quarter

Hi I'm Genivieve.
I am a stay at home mom with two kids and one on the way who loves to write and lives in North Dakota. Most of my stories are along the horror sci-fi genera and am working on my first full length novel. This is the first writing contest I've put into and first forum I've been a part of. I really don't know what else to put down so good luck to everyone who enters into the contest.

HM 4th quarter

Welcome, kick your feet up and stay a spell.

Hi I'm Genivieve.
I am a stay at home mom with two kids and one on the way who loves to write and lives in North Dakota. Most of my stories are along the horror sci-fi genera and am working on my first full length novel. This is the first writing contest I've put into and first forum I've been a part of. I really don't know what else to put down so good luck to everyone who enters into the contest.

HM 4th quarter

Welcome aboard! (When on earth do you make time to write with those kids!?)

Ty for the greetings! Lol i try to make time after they go to bed for at least an hour which i can get in about 500-1000 words, pre-edit but i'll admit there are those weeks that when they go to sleep i just sit and stare at the screen horrified lmao.

Ty for the greetings! Lol i try to make time after they go to bed for at least an hour which i can get in about 500-1000 words, pre-edit but i'll admit there are those weeks that when they go to sleep i just sit and stare at the screen horrified lmao.

Sounds about right to me. By the time our two toddlers are in bed my wife and I are usually too tired to do anything constructive.

Hello,

My name is James Jenkins. I like to write and I hope to enter this contest.

Thank you,
jljenkins

Welcome, James!

Hello,

My name is James Jenkins. I like to write and I hope to enter this contest.

Thank you,
jljenkins

Welcome! I think you'll fit in juuuust fine around here.

Hi all. My name is Scott Parkin and I'm a writer. I just placed as a finalist in Q4-29, and Kary found me on FB and informed me of these forums. One never learns to wait calmly and dispassionately for final quarterly results. I certainly haven't.

I was one of those people who submitted nearly every quarter for much of ten years (got my first finalist back in 1994). Reached a point where I was getting a lot of quarter- and semi-finalists (in the snail mail days before they really did honorable mentions) and an occasional finalist, but couldn't figure out how to get over that last hump (waiting for final results on my fourth finalist now; never been published in the antho).

Finally realized I was actually a natural novelist rather than short story writer, but the idea of writing 100K+ words in a single story so intimidated me with its complexity and commitment that I actually walked away from writing sf for more than a decade (did regional pop cultural and literary criticism instead). But I couldn't get sf writing out of my head no matter how hard I tried.

So now as I approach early geezerhood (okay...late forties) I've decided to buckle down and figure this beast out. I'm still intimidated by the idea of writing a novel, but I'm 35K into a YA fantasy and have both a near-future social sf novel and a not-so-near future firm sf novel in the queue to write first half of next year despite the fact that the form still frightens me a bit. I refuse to be intimidated any more and I'm going to take my shot and work through it despite the uncertainty.

Good luck all. The contest just keeps getting bigger every year.

HI, Scott,

Welcome to the forum!! This is one of the best places on the net. There's lots of inspiration and camaraderie here, leavened by a healthy dollop of silliness.

Most of the general hanging out happens in the quarterly Jibber Jabber threads. Hanging out, angsting over results or deadlines, trying to avoid being eaten by our resident forum mascots Gator and Kitty (and, guys--is that T-rex still here? There's a pile of... um, nevermind).

There are separate fora for story critiques where you make the connection here, but trade stories and comment offline, and there's one for general writing-type advice.

We occasionally get visits from the likes of Mike Resnick and Sam Hidaka (editor at Baen's), and our Fearless Leader is Analog super star Brad Torgersen.

Oh, and watch out for flying marshmallows.

Cheers!

Kary

Call me Ishmael. I always wanted to start a piece of writing that way, but someone else seems to have done it first. Outrageous, having my idea before I did. Anyway I have been writing short stories and entering competitions since 2010, having previously failed to persuade any agents to read my gothic detective novel.

I have just sent in my fifth submission to WotF; so far three rejected and one HM. Interestingly, the HM was the only one in which I broke my normal rule of starting with an introduction and instead launched straight into the story. At the time of submitting I had not yet discovered the advice available on this forum and I did not realise that I had only the first couple of pages in which to hook my reader.

My problem, I think, is being partial to the more leisurely pace available to the Victorian novelist. I like to say, “Here is an interesting problem,” and devote some time to explaining what makes the problem interesting before introducing the character or characters who are going to encounter it in my tale. Being of a philosophical disposition I am easily two or three pages in before the story actually starts. This is probably ill-advised in the modern market as well as in this competition!

Greetings to everyone.

Welcome, Ishmael. Good to have you aboard.

Thank you Kary. I have now added a suitably on board avatar.

Welcome, all! Looks like we've got some great new additions.

Call me Ishmael. I always wanted to start a piece of writing that way.

I hoped that was where this intro was going.

Pacing is a hard beast to capture. Philosophical starts *can* work, but it's much harder than the usual actiony sequences people have generally come to expect from spec fic in particular.

Welcome and congratulations, Scott!

And welcome aboard, Ishmael!

So many new people!! Welcome everyone Good luck to you, Scott! Hope to see you at the workshop in April.

Hello all.

My name is Giovanni.

1st time submitter in v29Q4. I haven't heard anything, so I've assumed that means I never received the rejection that my story was stamped with. I don't view that rejection stamp in my mind as a large font, bold text, red-painted 'R'. No, surely my writing did not deserve so much emotion as that. I see it instead as a hastily scrawled, lower-case, 'r'. The kind that looks like a misshapen boomerang, without even the courtesy of a leading down-stroke. Well, I'll show them. My next submission will be worthy of a stamp, I say. Perhaps not the large bold-text one, but I'll certainly fair better than a boomerang unable to perform its singular task!

Speaking of next submissions, I would love to get my Q1 story completed in time for the looming deadline, but sadly I've only completed the outline, and written 2/3 of the 1st draft. I'll see where I am with it in a week and decide between pushing it to Q2, or crunching my edits/revision for Q1.

Either way, nice to meet you all. Thanks for letting me ramble.

G.